There are currently millions of eggs in American refrigerators that most likely shouldn’t be there. That’s not hyperbole; federal health officials have been monitoring a growing salmonella outbreak for weeks, which has already sickened almost 100 people in 17 states and sent at least 26 of them to the hospital. The source has been identified as Midwest Poultry Services, L.P., a Texas-based company that voluntarily recalled over 1.5 million dozen eggs after Salmonella enteritidis was found in samples from two of its farms. Whole-genome sequencing verified that this particular strain matched the outbreak strain that is causing illness. There is…
Author: Sierra Foster
Sierra Foster
Born in Kansas City, Sierra Foster writes about politics and serves as Senior Editor at kbsd6.com. She was raised paying attention to this city, not just living in it. Sierra has a strong, deep connection to Kansas City, from the neighborhoods east of Troost to the discussions that take place in the city hall halls. Sierra, who is presently enrolled at the University of Kansas to pursue a degree in Political Science, applies the rigor of academic study to her journalism. She writes about politics in Missouri and Kansas as someone who genuinely cares about what happens to the people in these communities—the policies that impact them, the leaders who represent them, and the civic forces influencing their futures—rather than as an outsider watching from a distance. Her editorial coverage encompasses state-level policy, local government, and the national political currents that permeate bi-state regional life. Whether it's a city council vote or a Senate race, she has a special gift for turning complex policy language into writing that feels urgent, relatable, and worthwhile. Sierra seldom sits still off the page. She claims that playing soccer on a regular basis has sharpened her instincts for political reporting because of the sport's teamwork, strategy, and requirement to read a changing game in real time. She's probably somewhere in Kansas City with her friends when she's not writing or on the pitch, discovering new reasons to adore a city she already knows so well.
When you bring up Washington state, most people envision Seattle’s rain-soaked streets, ferries traversing Puget Sound, and the silhouettes of mountains vanishing into Pacific fog. Spokane doesn’t even come close to fitting that description. Spokane, which is located about 280 miles east of Seattle along Interstate 90, is a very different kind of Washington: it is drier, flatter in places, and surrounded by river basalt and ponderosa pines. Geographically and atmospherically, it is a world apart from the coast. About 20 miles from the Idaho border and 110 miles south of Canada, Spokane is situated in the eastern part of…
Anita Stokes took her cats, some clothes, and her wedding album with her when she left her Spokane home last Saturday. She found herself in front of an ash pile by Tuesday. That was all that was left. “I don’t think it’s sunk in yet,” she remarked. At that point, it’s difficult to know what else someone should say. Even seasoned emergency personnel were taken aback by the speed at which the three distinct wildfires in Washington state, known as Old Trails, Autumn Lane, and Fairview, spread on August 1. Strong, dry winds fueled the fires, which destroyed about 850…
A lot of the time, fast food chains follow the same trend at the same time. A few years ago, every big chain was putting a lot of money into their crispy chicken sandwich line. After that came the tenders, wraps, and desserts that were only available for a short time. This year, drinks are all the rage. But not just any drinks. Layered, photogenic, strongly flavored drinks that look more at home on a TikTok feed than on a paper tray liner. McDonald’s has been putting more effort into this than most. After shutting down its test version of…
More than 3,600 law enforcement officers dispersed throughout the Amazon Basin in the middle of July, traveling through congested river corridors, isolated border crossings, and jungle logging sites. They started breaking up what officials describe as one of the most intricate networks of environmental crime currently operating in the hemisphere. The procedure lasted for seventeen days. By the time it was all over, 839 people had been taken into custody, assets valued at over $280 million had been seized, and pictures from the area, such as rows of mining equipment, recovered animals, and stacked timber, told a story that statistics…
Chick-fil-A is quietly trying to do something big that has nothing to do with chicken. The chain just added four new Cream Cold Brew drinks to its lineup. It was already known for making better drinks than most fast food chains. There’s no big news. No campaign backed by famous people. Behind the counter, there are only three flavors, cold brew, and sweet cream. Some fast food chains have been getting really into the drinks business for a while now. It’s not really a secret. There are new drinks in cups at almost every big chain. There are energy drinks,…
You won’t even notice them if you walk down a residential street in the United States: a house with a steep roof and decorative half-timbering; a long, low-slung building that just barely clears the hedges; or a small two-story with a front door in the middle and shuttered windows. Most people have no idea what they’re seeing. That’s not really ignorance. It’s more that architectural language isn’t often used in everyday speech. But Tudor, Ranch, and Cape Cod homes aren’t just types of homes that show up on real estate listings. Each one has its own history, way of making…
Around the Sagamore Bridge, there is a time when the air changes. There is a slight difference—a little saltier and a little looser—and anyone who has made that crossing in late June knows what it means. Cape Cod is now in summer. For hundreds of years, people have been drawn to the peninsula that goes 65 miles into the Atlantic Ocean from the southeast corner of Massachusetts. It still doesn’t feel tired. This whole piece of land wasn’t always called Cape Cod. It was only the very tip of the peninsula that the name was given to by Bartholomew Gosnold…
A piece of metal about the size of a school bus drifting through space for eighteen months without being stopped before slamming into the moon at 5,400 miles per hour is a very unsettling thought. Not because it’s dangerous—scientists are sure it isn’t, at least not right now—but because it makes us think about how we handle the things we leave behind. The thing in question is the upper stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. This is the part that doesn’t land back on Earth like the more famous booster does. It sent two US and Japanese lunar landers…
Around the time you reach puberty, most doctors stop paying much attention to a small organ that is located just above your heart and tucked behind your breastbone. the thymus. It performs vital tasks during childhood, such as developing the body’s defenses and training immune cells, and then, according to conventional wisdom, it fades. shrinks. turns into a biological afterthought of sorts. That was essentially medicine’s official stance on the matter for many years. Hugo Aerts, the director of Mass General Brigham’s Artificial Intelligence in Medicine program and a physician-scientist at Harvard Medical School, wasn’t so sure. His team wasn’t…